Interview With #EventProfs Series - Stephanie Cartin, Social Fly

Stephanie Cartin is the founder of Social Fly, one of New York's leading influencer and social media agencies. We're incredibly excited about this interview. Keep reading and learn why social media is your number 1 tool to grow your events.

An entrepreneur from a young age,Stephanie Cartin, along with her business partner, walked away from their corporate gigs on the same day to start Socialfly, a social media marketing and influencing agency based in New York City.

Within seven years, Socialfly has blossomed to over 30 full-time employees, helping over 200 brands including Samsung SmartThings, Nest Fragrances, 20th Century Fox and Vera Bradley.

Always evolving, Socialfly is now also considered a leading influencer agency and has firmly established themselves as a force in the competitive digital agency space.

Stephanie is Co-Author of "Like, Love, Follow: The Entreprenista's Guide to Using Social Media To Grow Your Business,” has appeared on Bloomberg, Entrepreneur.com, Refinery29, and CheddarTV, and is a Co-Host of SocialLIVE, Socialfly’s weekly Facebook live show.

Stephanie is also a recent recipient of the SmartCEO Brava award, which recognizes the top female CEOs in New York and a Stevie Award for Women Run Workplace of the Year.

1) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED IN THE EVENTS INDUSTRY?

My business partner, Courtney Spritzer, and I founded Socialfly on the side of our full-time jobs in corporate America in 2011. By May of 2012, we mutually quit our jobs and were focused on building the business and growing our team. While Socialfly is primarily a social media marketing and influencer agency, we have been involved in events over the years for our own business needs, as well as the needs of clients, influencer events and running the social media coverage of events.

2) HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE EVENTS INDUSTRY?

As our agency, and social media, have evolved we have expanded our services to include Influencer Marketing, which has led to our involvement in the planning, execution, and coordination of events on behalf of brands and influencers.

3) WHERE DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF THE EVENTS INDUSTRY, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO THE USE OF EVENT TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS APPS, SOFTWARE ETC.

The future of the events industry is going to continue to center around social media. Events and experiences need to be “Instagrammable” in order to draw crowds and increase awareness about the brand behind the event. Events with social media activations, interesting backdrops for photos, and tech-friendly programs are going to continue to dominate the space.

4) WHAT ARE THE COMMON MISTAKES YOU SEE PEOPLE MAKING WHEN USING TECHNOLOGY AT EVENTS?

A common mistake we see people making at events is not utilizing social media as a way to grow and engage your audience. Get creative with your social strategy during an event and collect twitter and instagram handles from guests. We also advise creating hashtags for every panel and include the social handles for the speakers. It is important to keep people talking after the event and create a giveaway for mentioning a brand on social.

We all know the feeling of FOMO, the more people are talking about your event on social, the more people are going to want to get involved. By targeting the right people on social media, you are bound to grow awareness about your event and increase attendance. Reach out to your dream sponsor and share social media stats, content, and information about how attending would benefit their business.

6) CAN YOU SHARE ANY STORIES OR EXAMPLES THAT HELP ILLUSTRATE KEY POINTS?

Socialfly was a proud sponsor of this year’s Million Dollar Women Summit where our team put together a comprehensive social media strategy for all stages of the event process. We worked closely with the MDW team to ensure each sponsor was mentioned on social as well as the many speakers and coaches. Through a thoughtful social media advertising strategy we were able to target, engage, and drive ticket sales for the summit which led to a sold out event of over 200 female founders.

Be consistent in your social media strategy! Identify your target attendee and research where they are spending their time on social media. From there, work out a strategy with the right creative, copy, and targeting to engage them and bring awareness to the goal of your event.

8) WHAT’S YOUR #1 TIP FOR INCREASING ENGAGEMENT AT EVENTS?

We all know that when it gets close to the date of the event things can fall to the wayside, but don’t get lazy on social. Have live coverage during panels and sessions and keep the conversation going after the big day through hashtags and active community management.